Arnaldo Mesa

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Arnaldo Mesa Bonell (born December 6, 1967 in Cayo Mambí , † December 17, 2012 in Holguín ) was a Cuban boxer .

education

Arnaldo Mesa started boxing as a teenager. In Cuba he went through the usual state subsidies there and at the age of 17 was already one of the best Cuban boxers in bantam or featherweight (at that time up to 54 kg or 57 kg body weight). He celebrated his first major success in 1984 at a tournament in Russe , where he won the featherweight final against Demir Ivanov from Bulgaria and was tournament winner.

International career

In the international boxing scene he did not come back into the limelight until 1986. He won the so-called bantamweight Intercup in Karlsruhe in April with a victory over the Yugoslav Redžep Redžepovski . In May 1986 he was used at the World Championships in Reno in bantamweight. Arnaldo Mesa won there over José Rodríguez from Puerto Rico by breaking off in the first round, Marcelică Tudoriu from Romania and John Lovey from Ireland on points and was controversially defeated by the South Korean Moon Sung-kil with 2: 3 judge votes in the semifinals . He won a World Cup bronze medal with it.

In September 1986 he won the Simón Bolivar tournament in Caracas in featherweight by clear points victory over his compatriot Enrique Carrión . He also beat the same boxer at the Cuban championship in 1987 (Playa Girón) in the bantamweight division and became Cuban champion for the first time. In June 1987 he defeated his compatriot Jesús Sollet at the Giraldo Cordova tournament in Santa Clara , Cuba, and became the featherweight tournament winner.

At the Pan American Games in Indianapolis in 1987 , Arnaldo Mesa won featherweight in the round of 16 against Omar Catari from Venezuela on points and was then already defeated in the quarter-finals by the American Kelcie Banks , who he even had on the ground in the first round, controversial 2: 3 Judges' votes. He did not win a medal at this championship. In October 1987, Arnaldo Mesa won the Belgrade Featherweight Cup with victories over Darren Hiles, Australia , Michail Kazarjan from the USSR and Dragan Konovalov from Yugoslavia . In December 1987 he succeeded in Santa Clara, Cuba, in the international match between Cuba and the USA, the revenge against Kelcie Banks, which he clearly defeated this time with 5-0 judges' votes.

In January 1988 Arnaldo Mesa won the Cuban featherweight championship for the second time in Sancti Spíritus , Cuba, with a points victory over Jesús Sollet. He then won the featherweight tournament in Ústí nad Labem . He beat there Grzegorz Jablonski from Poland and H. Ha Tae from North Korea each on points. In July 1988 he won the final of the TSC tournament in East Berlin in the featherweight division. There he defeated Diego Drumm on points in the final . Arnaldo Mesa could not take part in the Olympic Games in 1988 because Cuba surprisingly boycotted the Olympic Games in Seoul at the behest of Fidel Castro . It may have been a poor substitute for him that he won the Central American and Caribbean Featherweight Championship in Guatemala City in October 1988 with a demolition victory in the second round over Alberto Ramírez from the Dominican Republic.

In January 1989 Arnaldo Mesa was in Guantánamo by a points victory over Arsenio Vidal again Cuban featherweight champion and at the AIBA World Challenge tournament in Casablanca he defeated the Soviet athlete Timofei Scriabin on points in the featherweight division. In June 1989 Arnaldo Mesa had to accept a defeat at an international tournament after a long time. In the final of the SKDA championship (championship of the armies of the Warsaw Pact countries) in Sliven he lost to Kirkor Kirkorow from Bulgaria with 2: 3 judges' votes. In September 1989 the World Amateur Boxer Championship took place in Moscow . Arnaldo Mesa won there against Yutaka Hayashida from Japan by breaking off in the 1st round, then defeated Jörg Heidenreich from the GDR on points and won in the quarterfinals against Djamel Lifa from France by breaking off in the 3rd round. In the semifinals he was defeated by the Soviet athlete Airat Chamatow with 12:14 points and won the World Cup bronze medal again.

1990 Arnaldo Mesa won the Cuban Championship in Cienfuegos in featherweight against Eddy Suárez on points and won his fourth championship title. He also won the World Cup in Havana in June 1990 . In featherweight he won there clearly with 31: 9 points over Kirkor Kirkorov, with 14: 4 points over Marko Rudolph from Germany and with 14: 8 points over his compatriot Eddy Suárez.

1991 Arnaldo Mesa started with a win at the AIBA World Challenge Match in Bangkok , Thailand . He won there against Raiman Boonthom from Thailand with just 34:30 points. In August 1991 he also won the featherweight division of the Pan American Games in Havana. The opponents he defeated on points were José Martínez from Puerto Rico, Michael Strange from Canada, Rogelio De Brito from Brazil and Kenneth Friday from the USA. In November 1991 the World Cup took place in Sydney . It was the third that Arnaldo Mesa attended. He returned to the featherweight division and beat Andrei Tschebotarjew from the USSR on points, Reijo Vuorinen from Finland by breaking off in the 3rd round and Andreas Tews from Germany just 17:13 points. In the semifinals he was defeated by the South Korean Park Duk-kyu very narrowly with 15:16 points. The main reason for this defeat was a warning that Arnaldo Mesa had received in the 3rd round for looking up.

In 1992 Arnaldo Mesa won again the Cuban featherweight championship in Pinar del Río in January with a point victory over Joel Casamayor . He then won the AIBA World Challenge Match in Tampa over Ivan Robinson from the USA. He then injured himself so badly that he could no longer box until 1995. He also missed the chance to compete in the Olympic Games in Barcelona .

comeback

In 1995 he made a big comeback. He won in Granma in January at the Cuban featherweight championship in the semi-finals against Mario Kindelán , but was defeated in the final against Enrique Fonseca. In March 1995, he went into the ring at the Pan American Games in Mar del Plata , Argentina . He won there featherweight wins over José Valbuena, Venezuela , Christian Rodríguez, Argentina, and Alexander Trujillo, Puerto Rico. At the 1995 World Cup in Berlin, he won over Baqtijar Tilegenow from Kazakhstan and Claude Chinon from France on points and was defeated in the quarterfinals against Serafim Todorow from Bulgaria with 5: 7 points.

In 1996 Arnaldo Mesa went 2nd at the Standjia tournament in Sofia . After victories over Artur Grigoryan , Uzbekistan , Serdar Yağlı from Turkey and Toni Naskovski from Macedonia, he was defeated again in the final against Serafim Todorow, where his point defeat was quite clear with 2:10 points. The next two tournaments, which he played in preparation for the Olympic Games in Atlanta , Arnaldo Mesa did not win. At the Grand Prix tournament in Ústí nad Labem he was defeated in the final to Maciej Zegan from Poland on points and also in the final of the Chemistry Cup in Halle (Saale) he lost the final. Falk Huste from Germany clearly defeated him with 7: 1 points. In the last preparation tournament before Atlanta, he then won in Pinar del Río, Cuba in featherweight with victories over Julio Chacón, Argentina, Rogelio De Brito and Metgihoud Noureddine, Algeria .

At the Olympic Games in Atlanta , Arnaldo Mesa surprisingly appeared in bantamweight (at that time up to 54 kg body weight). Although he had exercised a lot, he was in very good shape. He won in Atlanta against John Larbi from Sweden with 19: 5 points, then defeated Zahir Raheem from the USA after 45 seconds of fighting time by breaking off and defeated Rachid Bouatia from France in the quarterfinals with 15: 8 points. In the semifinals he defeated world champion Raimkul Malachbekow from Russia with a score of 14:14 only with the help of the so-called auxiliary points. In the fight for the Olympic gold medal, he faced the Hungarian István Kovács . Kovács managed to counter the constantly attacking Mesa and win the fight with 14: 7 points. For Mesa only the silver medal remained.

1997 Mesa had to admit defeat at the Cuban championship in Holguín in the lightweight (then up to 60 kg body weight) Lorenzo Aragón . At the Grand Rix tournament in Ústí nad Labem he was defeated in the semifinals against Arak Sachbazjan from the Czech Republic on points and at the Chemistry Cup in Halle (Saale) he was defeated in the semifinals against Heiko Hinz from Germany on points.

After these defeats, he ended his career as a boxer. He played a total of 271 fights, of which he lost only 26.

Career after active career

Following his active career, he trained as a sports teacher. As such, he served his country on foreign assignments in Venezuela (the Cuban state generates an important share of its scarce foreign currency income by posting qualified personnel, especially in the health and sports sectors). Until shortly before his death he gave boxing lessons to students in Holguín.

Mesa died in December 2012 in the capital of his home province of Holguín at the age of 45 of a cerebral haemorrhage .

Country battles by Arnaldo Mesa

International championships with Arnaldo Mesa

(OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, PanAm = Pan American Championship, Ba = Bantamweight, Fe = featherweight, Le = lightweight, at that time up to 54 kg, 57 kg and 60 kg body weight)

swell

  • Box Sport magazine from 1984 to 1997,
  • Website "www.sport-komplett.de",
  • Website "www.boxrec.com"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eric Reynoso: Fallció Arnaldo Mesa, gloria del boxeo cubano , in Café Fuerte on December 18, 2012 (Spanish)
  2. ↑ Muere el exboxeador Arnaldo Mesa , in: Diario de Cuba of December 18, 2012 (Spanish)
personal data
SURNAME Mesa, Arnaldo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mesa Bonell, Arnaldo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION cuban boxer
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Cayo Mambí
DATE OF DEATH 17th December 2012
Place of death Holguín